


Letter from Father Christmas

by VSSAKJ



Category: The Father Christmas Letters - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Epistolary, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-06
Updated: 2018-12-06
Packaged: 2019-09-12 22:49:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,035
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16880712
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VSSAKJ/pseuds/VSSAKJ
Summary: A great number of things change over the years, even here in the slow-moving North. My hope is this letter can outline a few.





	Letter from Father Christmas

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Syrena_of_the_lake](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Syrena_of_the_lake/gifts).



> Happy Yuletide! I hope you enjoy this trip up to the pole, and have a lovely holiday season.

Top o’the World,  
Near the North Pole  
Tuesday December 18th 2018

Dearest Syrena_of_the_lake,

It has been rather a long time since someone your age requested a letter from me. Of course children get bigger and busier and time comes between them and me—lovely to know you still think of me and my stories. Now you mustn't worry, I have kept your name to myself but I do know it’s you, and this letter is especially yours.

My hand is ever so shaky but you know, I’m—well, I must be over two thousand years old by now. Quite an achievement I would say, but of course Grandfather Yule is even older than Green Brother and me.

Well, where to begin… I must say we are beginning to worry there may be goblins again soon. It has been quiet for long enough now that we tell stories of the Great Goblin Scourge of 1933, and how that began the Second Goblin War. Paksu and Valkotukka—who are rather larger than cubs today, and soon may be so large as Polar Bear himself

**Not likely!**

but they do have their own nieces and nephews now, and take great pride in telling how uncle Great slew 1000 goblins with a single strike of his paw. One of those nieces, Luihu, is turning out to be just as much trouble as the rest of the family. But I’ll tell you about that shortly.

**Tell them about nasty goblin smell**

This time, it seems that Valkotukka scented them first. He said it seems very far away still, but they gather at the border like a tide. I am not worried for this Christmas, as it’s much too close now and we’re quite well-prepared this time around, but next year, there could be trouble.

Speaking of the tides, the weather has been tempestuous this year. The elves have said it’s because the world’s becoming warmer, but by the icicles in my beard, I don’t think that’s happening! The reindeer have had their paddock changed so they can shelter in the windbreak of some evergreens when the freak snow storms roll in. Think of them like thunderstorms: they appear as if from nowhere, ravage, and vanish, just like that!

One evening a few weeks ago, there was a wicked storm—wickeder than usual, even for the pole. Polar Bear, Paksu, and Valkotukka had just finished checking that everyone was thoroughly prepared and bunked in when Paksu realised Luihu was missing.

**Cheky girl!**

We know that now, but at the time it was most frightful. Imagine a niece or nephew vanished on the eve of the most dangerous storm in their lifetime! Of course we piled out into the snow to look for her. I fired up some of my brightest sparklers and leapt aboard the pair of great white reindeer, who are the only two quick enough to outrun the snow. We sped across the land, snowdust flying in our wake as we checked the house, the outbuildings, the caves—even my old house, where Luihu had never been! She was nowhere to be found.

With the tempest swirling at our heels, we found that we’d nearly run ourselves to edge of my land when the Man in the Moon shot a star for our eyes to follow, and where it landed we spotted Luihu perched atop the highest peak with a fishing rod. Trying to catch a whale, she claimed, but we had no time to quibble—I scooped her up, she’s still quite a small cub but ferocious already, and home we bounded with the storm closing in on all sides. With the door behind us we locked the wind and snow out, and before the roaring fire we did have a laugh about it.

The thing about bears is they’re never boring.

**Of course not, only boring animals are boring**

I have written a great deal more than I intended to, and feel I have so much more to say! But my hands do feel quite cold now, though, and I must be getting to our final checks to be certain nothing will go wrong on Christmas night.

It was good to write to you. Please do not forget me.

Yours,  
Father Nicholas Christmas

_Dear Syrena_of_the_lake,_

_I am Ilbereth, secretary of Father Christmas, and hope you take no offense at my addendum to this letter. You see, Father Christmas is often distracted, usually by the great lout_

**Not a lout either**

_and so sometimes forgets to provision all details regarding undertakings here at the North Pole. For example, in the back of the woodworking shop, a fox kit and a leveret have been sharing a box of wood shavings as a nest. It was my intention to separate and displace them but_

**They friends! Even if they should not be. Like a bear and a elf**

_We are not friends. As I was saying, it seemed prudent to part them, but when I took the kit in hand, the leveret made the awfullest fuss, and I must be ashamed to say I could not abide its sadness. The kit yelped and scratched and whined until I let it go, whence it streaked straight back into that box with the leveret. It seems I will have to take a different approach._

**I think we should feed them**

_You think food is the solution to everything._

**and name them**

_What would we name a fox and a hare, particularly when one of them may grow to eat the other?_

**Fox can be name Ruoka, Hare can be namd Kivi.**

_... You think that by naming the fox with the Finnish word for ‘food’ and the hare with the word for ‘stone’, you can discourage nature from behaving the way it’s meant to? Truly, Great Bear, you are_

**I eat only sweet, Ruoka can do the same. Kivi and Ruoka can be friends**

_On that very sensible note, as it is very nearly Christmas, I must go. There is a great deal to do._

_All my best,  
Ilbereth_

**NB too**

~~_P.S. I shall write you next year to advise on the wellbeing of Ruoka and Kivi. Do not tell the bear._ ~~


End file.
